Stiaan van Zyl smashed through the Gloucestershire lineup to put Sussex in line for an unlikely victory in the County Championship.

He took three wickets for four runs in three overs as Gloucestershire chased 167 for victory. They ended day three on 108-6 in a low-scoring match in Brighton.

He had also made a significant contribution of 44, the second-highest score of Sussex’s second-innings offering of 204, in which David Wiese was unbeaten on 27.

Sussex had a first-innings deficit of 38 after Wiese took 5-48 to help bowl out Gloucestershire for 183.

It was another round of thin pickings for South Africans in England as rain ruined matches across the country.

Hashim Amla registered his second fifty in County Cricket as Hampshire laboured their way to 241-4 on day three of their match against Essex.

But the weather relented enough for Amla to score his second successive fifty in the third match of his short-term contract with Hampshire. He had 55 in a losing cause against Surrey last time out and has 200 runs from five innings.

Elsewhere, Dean Elgar contributed 34 to Surrey’s response of 231-9 to Lancashire’s 439-9 declared. With one day remaining, that too is a game destined for a draw.

Durham opener Aiden Markram has spent three days watching the rain come down in Northampton, perhaps chatting with Richard Levi about sunnier days.